Boys win big at Myrtle Point

For the third consecutive year, the Brookings-Harbor High School cross country boys and girls teams have won the combined score championship trophy at the Myrtle Point Invitational cross country meet.

The boys followed first-place finisher sophomore Chris Burton to a first-place boys team finish where the top five Bruins finished in the top seven places overall.

The girls followed fourth-place finisher freshman Deborah Lawrence to a third-place girls team finish.

The combined scores from both teams was 94 points which beat Bandon’s 103 for the overall win.

“We’ve won it the past three years but hadn’t gotten the trophy from Bandon,” Head Coach Terry Axel explained. “They’re always tough and they waited until the very end to hear the final scores and hand over the trophy.”

Axel had also used the Myrtle Point course as an opportunity to offer his runners a deal where, for every runner that set a personal best, he would do 15 pushups.

Axel thought he was in the clear because the course has “three tough hills.”

“I had to 105 pushups,” he said with a wry smile. “Seven of my runners PR’d.”

Chris Beeman, Evan Vallot, Hunter Niedens, Jose Ramos, Stephen Pettinger, Mallory Darger and Clarice Baumbach were the seven to set new personal records at the meet.

Myrtle Point was the Bruins final event before next Thursday’s Far West League championships at noon at Tugman State Park.